A study investigated whether a change in focus, viewing student writing as a process rather than a product, would have a significant positive effect on writing skill development. Secondarily, the study examined the effectiveness of actual teaching techniques, including a series of writing tasks interspersed with student-teacher interaction and the…

Focusing on the use of word processing software programs as instructional tools for students learning writing composition, this collection includes 14 research articles and position papers, 16 reports on lesson ideas and projects, 5 articles on keyboarding, and 18 product reviews. These materials relate to teaching writing through the process…

This publication contains an annotated bibliography of 19 sources of information for instructors of General Educational Development Test (GED) preparation classes and adult basic education classes. An introduction discusses the literature search that identified materials and information to help GED instructors teach adult education, generally, and…

A study described the influence of writing conferences on revision knowledge and revision activity for an initially knowledgeable first-grade reviser and a relatively naive one. Subjects, two first-grade students in a whole language classroom, were chosen from the 16 students in the class for close study. Data analysis consisted of reading all of…

The tradition that promoted "sophia" instead of "philosophia,""oratio" instead of "ratio," and promoted the pursuit of wise decision making based on character has been replaced by a pedagogy that focuses on decision making independent of the role of virtue in making minds up. In courses in argumentation,…

A study examined the status of graduate studies in composition at the M.A. level. Open-ended surveys were sent to every M.A.-granting institution listed in "Petersen's Graduate Programs in the Humanities." One hundred eleven surveys were returned (a 39% response). Results indicated that: (1) the average M.A.-granting institution does not…

The need for the liberal arts curriculum to incorporate new technology in order for education to reach its potential is examined in this paper, which also looks at the potential for computer-based telecommunications to extend continued education for professionals. A survey of applications of computer-based telecommunications in reading and writing…

To determine whether computer assisted instruction was just a fad or a viable alternative to traditional methods for teaching English composition, a microcomputer was used in a traditional college freshman English course. The class was divided into small groups: some went to the computer lab, while others worked in the classroom. Interactive…

Almost 600 questionnaires were sent to private and public colleges and universities in a nationwide survey of their revision practices in advanced composition courses. Among the results were the following: (1) the teacher figured most powerfully in any revision activity; (2) a single mode of revision was the prevailing practice; (3) private…

Graphs are increasingly being used in written communication and writers expect readers to understand them. One definition of graphs--information transmitted by position of point, line or area on a two dimensional surface--excludes displays composed chiefly of numbers or words such as tables or outlines. However, it does include time lines, flow…

One proposed model of the writing process describes writing as a dynamic, three dimensional, interactive process. It is dynamic in that it changes in intensity proportionate to the sophistication of the student and the teacher. It is three dimensional and interactive because, similar to the gears within a clock, it is composed of a number of…

One hundred college remedial writing students participated in a study designed to (1) demonstrate some of the differences between speaking and writing in a controlled situation; (2) test the hypothesis that the writing of subjects who have spoken about a particular topic will be qualitatively superior to the writing of those who have not; and (3)…

This paper, written for counselors and educators, describes a course in guided autobiography (a self-narrative which is structured around important life themes such as family, work, health, love and death) and its role in developmental psychology. A description of the course which is structured around three components, lectures, writing…

In 1979, the Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) began the Recruitment into Engineering of High Ability Minority Students program (REHAMS). The purpose of the program was to give students a head start in their college courses while providing them with an opportunity for counseling and tutoring. To balance the curriculum's scientific emphasis…

In order to provide technical communication students with individual projects that reflect real "world of work" conditions and that permit all students, regardless of their level of technical sophistication, to obtain the necessary report data, computer software has been developed offering three alternative projects for a report writing…